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Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 20.07.06  : Vicious Delicious -  Infected Mushroom  (2007) This was the alternative choice from "yesterday" which completely confused the channel, so it was decided to present it "today" for people to make up their mind about it - I'd never heard of it or them, so was coming in completely blind.  And hmmm, it's not really my thing - it just sounds a bit of a bleepy, beaty mess to me.  Not mellow enough to have on in the background, but not strong enough to listen to either - not sure what I'm supposed to do with it.  It's also got one creepy album cover, but it's still kinda cool. The channel was positively quiet, but quietly positive for the weirdness - more time was spent talking about Ennio Morricone's death than anything else though.   Wikipedia doesn't have an entry for this album, although some of their other superbly titled albums do, including Converting Vegetarians II and The Head Of NAS...

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 20.07.01  : Ultra Ego -  Feed Me Jack  (2016) After the 4 track, 16 minute offering we had last time, we've massively extended the listening effort required here to 5 tracks and 21 minutes - I'll have this list finished by tea-time at this rate.  I'd never heard of the band but the album cover somewhat concerned me as to what I was going to get.  And having to listened to it, I'm not entirely sure what I did get - "ambient jazz" maybe?  Not terrible, but not really my sort of thing - fine on in the background though.  The channel had much muso talk on this that mostly went over my head, but overall I got the impression they liked it.  As for the previous entry, Wikipedia has absolutely nothing on the group or the album - the internet tells me they split up pretty much immediately after this album, but there's not a lot out there about them (without looking a bit harder than I could be bothered to, anyway)...

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 20.06.26  : Ben Folds Five -  Ben Folds Five  (1995) What?  Narj managed to avoid picking Laura Marling AGAIN?!?  I can only assume Evil Robot Narj was somehow involved - but for those of you that have had the pleasure of her acquaintance, you'll know that even Evil Robot Narj is still going to be a very nice person indeed.  Much nicer than me anyway, particularly after I've been made to listen to a Ben Folds Five album - it's just not my kind of thing.  I consider it to be the bastard son of Mika and the less interesting bits of various other groups (and let's face it, anything that invokes the spirit of Mika is obviously going to be annoying).  I guess "Underground" is a well constructed song, but it's still more than a bit annoying - particularly the chorus with all those falsetto "wooohs".  So it's not for me, thank you.  And I can only hope Evil Robot Narj can forgive me (but I've checked a...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  Top 50 Movies of 2020... #41 :   Saint Frances Nicely observed US indie written by and starring Kelly O’Sullivan, who plays a woman in her mid-30s whose unexpected pregnancy coincides with her getting a job as a nanny for a kid called Frances (Ramona Edith Williams). Another film I'd heard of - we're on a roll!  And this one I was actually planning to watch - it got good write-ups and I like a "nicely observed US indie".  Having said that, I didn't really know entirely what I was going to get - so let's see, shall we? Well, it's certainly nicely observed, US and indie!  Bridget is the normal type of adult in these things - charming but useless (at least to start with) but she is very nicely observed (and very well played by Kelly as well).  And Frances is the normal type of kid in these things - wise beyond her years and sassy to boot (and extremely well played by Ramona).  And do they, by any chance, get to go on ...

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 20.06.23  : KIWANUKA - Michael Kiwanuka (2019) I listened to this when it won the Mercury Prize and found it admirable but unengaging - so I was interested to see if my opinion changed.  And overall - no, not really.  The songs were better than I remembered, they're all well constructed with some interesting rhythms and he has a lovely soulful voice - but it just doesn't click with me.  I feel like it should - I quite like some of Stevie Wonder or Bill Wither's stuff and this isn't a million miles away, so maybe check it out if you're into that sort of thing and you'll get the thing I'm missing. His voice actually sounds quite Hendrixy at times, but it wouldn't be entirely accurate to claim his albums as a relevant touchpoint. The channel liked this one and recommended all his albums (and I seem to recall I actually did engage with his first album).  Wikipedia has a reasonable amount on the album, but most of it...

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 20.06.18  : Pretty Together - Sloan (2001) I'd never heard of Sloan and Wikipedia suggests this is a serious omission on my part - it seems as though they were making the kind of music I liked at the kind of time I was listening to a lot of music.  So, I was interested to listen to this - and yeah, I liked it and it does indeed seem to be a serious omission, sounding very much like a lot of stuff I used to listen at the time - although maybe a bit more 60s/70s influenced than I usually go for, but those influences have been somewhat thin on this list so far (unlike the Rolling Stone exercise) so they were a pleasant surprise.  I'd also have to say it sounds very, very Canadian! The channel was told they'd never have heard of Sloan and responded by agreeing - and that was it for critical comment.   Wikipedia doesn't have an awful lot to say about the album other than noting it's a bit more downbeat than their usual stuff...

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 20.06.15 : Brown Sugar - D'Angelo (1995) One I've already met before and I really don't understand the appeal, I'm afraid. Most of the comments on the channel for this were saying how much they enjoyed the last couple of albums, but someone came in at the end saying "I like this, but then again I like D'Angelo" in a very apologetic stylee. 20.06.16 : Zaba - Glass Animals (2014) Never heard of the artist or the album so was going in blind, but for some strange reason the album title gave me hope I'd like it.  And yeah, I did although I'm not entirely sure how I'd describe it - "relaxed indie pop" maybe?  (Wikipedia randomly assigns it the genres "psychedelic pop", "indie rock" and "indie pop" - so I'll give myself a pat on the back).  No track particularly jumped out at me, but it all slid past me nicely. The channel liked this a lot - it got the best recepti...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  Top 50 Movies of 2020... #42 :   The Invisible Man An enterprising adaptation of the HG Wells classic, reconfigured for the #MeToo era by horror specialists Blumhouse. Elisabeth Moss is a woman who believes she is being stalked by her controlling boyfriend, who was thought to have killed himself. Another film I'd heard of (and heard good things about) but had yet to see, so I was looking forward to watching it (even if these kind of films aren't normally my thing).  And you'd have to say it starts very suspensefully - pretty much 10 minutes passes before we have any actual dialogue but you know that something is most definitely up. And to be fair, something stays most definitely up for most of the film -  I can't really comment too much on what happens for most of it though without giving the game away (although I will tell you there's a man in it and invisibility also features).  It certainly has some truly unexpected momen...

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 20.06.10  : Ill Communication - Beastie Boys (1994) My fourth Beastie Boy album review and, whilst I didn't mind Pauls Boutique and some bits of Licensed To Ill , I think it's fair to say I'm not their hugest fan, so can't claim I was approaching this with any kind of enthusiasm. But, oh god, this is just terrible.  Please MAKE IT STOP.  Oh, it turns out I can do that.  So I did.  Having said that, I liked "Sabrosa" - mainly because at no point did a single Beastie Boy say anything on it.  So it's possibly my favourite Beastie Boy track ever (and yes, I'm totally exaggerating for effect).  But it's fair to say I'm not a Beastie Boy fan and this album contains very little of the bits that I do like about then.  And there's an hour of it to endure as well - just no.  It's a cool album cover though - apparently it's a photo from the 60s and they sent the photographer a copy of the album when ...